Vet Speak: "Penalise Pet Owners, who fail in their Responsibilities towards their Pets"

It's time for the New Year and what better way to start it by changing a pet's life. January will celebrate the "Change a Pet's Life Day," and we thought of talking to Dr Ramandeep Singh Chaggar, COO - Alphapets (which is a solution for all of your pet care needs with clinics in Vasant Kunj and Saket, New Delhi). Dr Chaggar has over 15 years of experience in veterinary sciences and spent all his childhood holidays with his father assisting at what was at the time one of the first private veterinary clinics in Delhi, established in 1968.

How would you define a veterinarian's role in changing a pet's life?

​A veterinarian could be termed as an extension of the society, who can treat and prevent illness or disease to help all animals; or an extension of the animals give their view-point to the world as they cannot speak and at the same time represent the society and communicate its needs and disciplines to the animals so they can be better behaved accordingly and mutually suitably exist in synchrony with being helpful to each other.

Who better can understand mute animals than the veterinarian that almost communicates with them effortlessly and tries to make the society understand their plight, and the suffering they go through without being able to complain about anything to the common person/caretakers/guardians/owners or parents?

In short, a vet can be a medium of communication between pets and human beings and help them understand each other in a better way.

What measures do you think should be taken to save the lives of stray dogs and cats?

​Stray populations of dogs could be utilised and trained by the Army to serve as army dogs rather than purchasing good breeds, solving the problem of sourcing new puppies for induction into the army; thereby reducing stray dog populations too.

Another measure is more aggressive and extensive ABC (Animal Birth Control) programs, which would lead to stray animal population control unto a great extent.

By educating general human population right from school age to respect another species, be it stray or domestic!

How many cases in general do you receive of pet abuse?

​At least once every other day!

Lately, we have seen that people buy a specific breed and leave them when they cannot care more for them? What do you think should be done for saving those poor canines?

​A lot of people buy expensive dogs and cats just for the sake of owning them. Once they realise that they require care as much as another family member, including medical care, these pets are, a lot of times, abandoned. Although, the percentage of these types of people is rapidly declining we still come across those people every now and then.​

There could be a bond which new pet owners should sign stating their responsibilities towards any new pet they're acquiring, and their duties as new guardians and pet owners, failing which, they should be penalised and ​banned from keeping any more pets for the lifetime of their existence. Enforcing such bonds and sureties would be another challenge.

Share an experience, where you have changed a pet's life.

​A beautiful stray dog, whose owner wanted him to be 'Sent away to a distance land' as the only fault of the dog was epilepsy...He was adopted with my help and went on to have a very healthy and long life with additional help of epilepsy medicines. Maybe the previous owners/guardians did not know that a condition like epilepsy could be controlled lifelong with simple medication.

Can you share some tips on the grooming of a previously abused dog?

​Regular de-matting, brushing, treatment of ecto and endoparasites​, and routine vaccinations are the key to groom such dogs.

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